Corporate Governance, Sustainability and Finance

Dear Colleagues,

In the last few decades, corporate governance codes and rules have been introduced in many countries. Good corporate governance practices emphasize the independence of boards, with board committees increasingly expected to focus on improving interaction between the firms and society. To date, the research on corporate governance is quickly evolving to a broader territory that considers environmental, social and governance challenges. There is also a growth in socially responsible and sustainable investments, e.g., green bonds, low-carbon investments, and companies’ disclosure of climate-related information is favoured by many investors. To catch investors’ attention, companies are enthusiastic about presenting superior performance in environmental, social, and governance fields and their sustainability practices. However, do companies with good performance in corporate governance and sustainability practices yield high profits? Can investors generate returns by investing in companies that are socially and environmentally responsible and doing good things? These questions take us to an early debate, where Milton Friedman argued that the social responsibility of a business is to increase its profits. However, others have suggested that the priority of business is to ensure the well-being of customers, employees, and communities, and that a firm’s relationship with a variety of stakeholders can prove to be important factors in creating firm value.

This Special Issue intends to revisit the debate and further examine the relationships between corporate governance, sustainability practices, and financial performance. Contributions to this Special Issue are expected to provide insightful findings and understanding around finance, investment, corporate governance and sustainability. We are particularly interested in topics involving climate-related financial disclosures and sustainability reporting, ESG integration, asset pricing, and firm value, and also welcome studies from the perspective of sustainable household financial management.

Dr. Lan Sun
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• corporate governance
• sustainable finance and investment
• sustainability reporting
• ESG integration
• asset pricing
• firm value